Posted on 08/22/2004 10:47:16 AM PDT by MaryT
On Feb 28, 1969, I was officer in charge of PCF-23, one of three Swift boats - including Kerry's PCF-94 and Lt. j.g. Donald Droz's PCF-43 - that carried Vietnamese Regional and Popular Force troops and a Navy demolition team up the Dong Cung, a narrow tributary of the Bay Hap River, to conduct a sweep of the area.
Ambushes were a virtual certainty, and that day was no exception.
The Viet Cong in the area had come to expect that the heavily loaded boats would lumber on past an ambush, firing at the entrenched attackers, beaching upstream and putting troops ashore to sweep back down on the ambush site. Often, they were long gone by the time the troops got there.
The first time we took fire - the usual rockets and automatic weapons - Kerry ordered a "turn 90" and the three boats roared in on the ambush. It worked.
Meanwhile, Kerry ordered our boat to head upstream with his, leaving Droz's boat at the first site.
IT happened again, another ambush. And again, Kerry ordered the turn maneuver, and again it worked.
Then-Capt. and now retired Rear Adm. Roy Hoffmann, the task force commander, fired off a message congratulating the three Swift boats, saying at one point that the tactic of charging the ambushes was a "whining example of completely overwhelming the enemy" and that it "may be the most efficacious method of dealing with small numbers of ambushers."
Hoffman has become a leading critic of Kerry's and now says that what the boats did on that day demonstrated Kerry's inclination to be impulsive to a fault.
Our decision to use that tactic under the right circumstances was not impulsive but was the result of discussions well beforehand and a mutual agreement of all three boat officers.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Mary time to put down the bong, IMO.
It could other things of course. For example, he could have been bounced out of the militray in 1970 for homosexual activity, because he contracted a bunch of STDs at Cahm-Ran Bay, because he applied to marry (did marry?) a French-Viet Namese girl who he met on leave ashore or any one of ten other reasons. ALL ARE FAIR GAME BECAUSE HE HOLDS THE TRUTH AND REFUSES TO REVEAL IT.
Now, MaryT are you whining about Kerry or Benedict Arnold? Both had good days before they turned traitor.
Ah, blow it out yer piehole, babe. The Leftist 527s are the ones that set the negative tone in this campaign...or are you too stupid to notice?
P.S. -- You're a feminist? Awww...isn't that cute!
Ummmm ... what about the citation, which says, "attacked a numerically superior enemy while under intense fire"? The citation says a score of VC were routed. If only a few VC were routed, and Kerry simply dispatched a single VC, Elliott says he would NOT have passed the Silver Star recommendation along.
Mary, tell your boy Kerry that other Vietnam veterans have a First Amendment right to free speech just as much as he does.
Bush did not serve on missions with John F. Kerry.
These men did.
They have a right to be heard even though Kerry wants to silence them.
If Kerry is so "heroic", he would be able to address the specific charges extensively documented in "Unfit for Command" instead of whining like a whipped puppy.
JAAAAA, Cacique! < |:)~
For shame. It was a musical. Here's the cover for the soundtrack...
; )
OK stone.
Lay out excatly what you would have W do.
John Kerry should have been kept in the RVN, we would have never lost if we had kept this innovative and fearless warrior on the rivers of Viet Nam. All Hail John Kerry. (/sarcasm)
Your own opening sentence disqualifies Kerry, whose minions, flunkies and stooges have been calling Bush a "liar" for the last year, simply because using the same intelligence available to Kerry, he reached the same conclusions that Kerry reached about Iraq.
George Bush is paying lip service to distancing himself from the degradation of Kerry's heroic past.
Kerry is foundering on the shoal of his own vulgar opportunism. He wanted to join the Amerikan Left of the 1970's, and the price of admission was his soul: He gave up his buddies and lied about having committed atrocities in order to curry favor with people who aren't even worth their own body waste. Now he wants to play the patriot by dusting off the medals he never tossed (Interesting that: he betrayed his new friends, too.)
Next time you come to this forum, try to actually bring an argument--instead of a clipboard full of cliches.
Tell your candidate to stop being so negative.
Bush hasn't done anything except challenge Kerry on the issues. If Kerry is having problems with veterans, he brought that on himself over 30 years ago when he did a few things that pissed them off.
Have you ever had someone you thought of as a friend betray you? Now, if you're a soldier or sailor in a war zone, and someone you considered a comrade in arms, betrayed you... That is far deeper a wound than having a best friend betray you. It is like having a sibling betray you. It isn't something you forgive easily. That coupled with the questions about Kerry's service records and war stories raises are what gives the Swift Boat Veterans so much credibility.
If you want to consider which candidate to support intelligently, make sure their are no skeletons in Kerry's closet that really would make him unfit to command.
And if you have time, read about the campaign finance reform law. Because the President is one of the candidates in the race, he cannot touch or try to influence the group. That is up to the FEC, so if you have a problem, write to the FEC. Don't think that the President carries any weight with the FEC... He filed a complaint against Kerry a while ago, and hasn't been able to get them to budge on that either.
So get your facts straight before screaming bloody murder. Oh, by the way - it is possible your candidate committed murder on the battlefield.... He even admitted to it. So, either he did it, or he lied about it... How does that make you feel now? Either he is a cold blooded killer, or he is a pathological liar.
Let the paving begin!
BUMP FOR THE SUPPORT OF SWIFT VETS HERE... http://www.swiftvets.com/
Wait for the rebuttal Mary. And your boy Rood refuses to answer questions.
I'm glad I woke up! because I thought I smelled a ZOT here . . .
Good find!
"John Kerry is the kind of Military Leader that Hollywood makes movies about."
Since he only served for four months, it would be a pretty short movie.
You aren't a complete idiot...some parts are missing.
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